Various species of algae are known to produce valuable products ranging from food to fertilizer to biofuels. The large-scale commercial production of these algae however, particularly for commodity products like biofuels, has been limited by the unfavorable economics of the current cultivation and harvesting methods. The two dominant cultivation methods are (1) open raceways and (2) closed bioreactors and two of the dominant harvesting methods are (1) centrifugation and (2) tangential-flow filtration. These cultivation approaches have problems with high associated operating costs, high land costs, uncontrolled evaporation, contamination and/or limited flexibility.
What is needed is a relatively low cost, low maintenance approach for cultivation of the algae and separation of the algae and/or other micro-organisms from other substances. Preferably, the approach should have little or no evaporation or contamination problems and should allow flexibility in-throughput, algae choice and other parameters that affect the resulting product(s).